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Updates on Edwin Mellen Press lawsuits

Another layer has been added to the issues surrounding the Edwin Mellen Press lawsuits. Last week Scholarly Kitchen published a post explaining they removed two posts (and comments) by Rick Anderson discussing Edwin Mellen Press because they received letters from EMP threatening legal action. The letter tells Scholarly Kitchen, “We are putting you on notice that the moment Mr. Anderson publishes or provokes any statement about our company or authors that is the slightest bit defamatory, we will pursue legal action only against him, but your organization as well.”

Here is the full letter to Scholary Kitchen about Rick Anderson. It also appears that Edwin Mellen Press is also holding Scholarly Kitchen liable for libelous comments made by the general readership. Because in their Rick Anderson letter they also mention they enclosed a copy of a letter to Kristine Hunt, who they claim posted libelous statements in response to Anderson’s blog. EMP’s Anderson letter says, “We are bringing this information to your attention because you are the publishers of both Ms. Hunt’s statement and Mr. Anderson’s blog. As such, you have a legal obligation to monitor these types of comments. In order to limit any damage from such events, we request the immediate removal of Ms. Hunt’s comments from your blog.”

The letter to Kristin Hunt specifically states that EMP takes issue with two comments she made on Anderson’s post that they believe are harmful and untrue. Their letter ends, “You have the right to seek legal counsel pertaining to this matter and, if you do so, your attorney should contact me directly. If you do not consult an attorney, you are welcome to contact me yourself. If I do not hear from you or your attorney by April 15, 2013, the Press will take legal action as it sees fit.”

Yikes! But there is more.

Roy Tennant with The Digital Shift published on Friday that Edwin Mellen Press registered domain names using Dale Askey’s name (Askey, to my knowledge, is still battling one of the two lawsuits brought by EMP). Roy has the registration record as an in the post showing DALEASKEY.COM registered to Edwin Mellen Press Ltd. address and has Iona Williams with an EMP email address as the administrative contact.

Dave Pattern mentions in the comments, that many sites (besides the Dale Askey ones) were registered by “pseudonymous ‘Arthur Scholar’ (pen name of the blogger on the EMP site & also the EMP tweeter) has been used to register around 100 domains over the years.” He says Iona (Margaret) Williams registered some other mellenpress domains and is listed as a contact on Mellen’s website and as a Secretary for the company at these two places

http://bit.ly/XSDvd0

http://bit.ly/Z3GbUz

I agree with Dave, in which I have no idea why anyone or any company would want to buy domain names that aren’t related to themselves. Weird, and just to let my readers know. This is not an April Fool’s post.

(Total side note and apology to Rick Anderson, I can’t help it but every time I read the EMP letter all I can hear is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in the Matrix saying “Mr Anderson.” I bet there are times Rick and Dale wish they took the blue pill.)